Photo Collection: 1

Over my year hiatus I still played around with stuff I had picked up and would occasionally snap some pics with my phone, either with the built in camera app or the Hipstamatic app to share my latest and greatest scores with a couple of friends. Below in no order or explanation are some of those photos.

enjoy!

Batman: The Lost Bet

I had a little bet going with Brian A and Brian B that the winner (or loser) had to write a guest post for the other's blogs. I really do not want to got into the whole thing, but I won and or lost! 

So, first up I have a guest post over at Under the Giant Penny featuring the Mike Mignola Variant Batman Black and White Statue sent to me by my friends at Tate's. They redesigned their website recently, it's really cool, you should check it out.

Make sure you check out my guest post, and then come back for more Eclectorama fun... oh and I have two more guest post I have to write, so stay tuned for those announcements.

I love the smell...

...of minty Bat Dolly in the morning. It smells like victory!

The hardest part is letting them go

file photo of Chunky B

I still consider myself a collector, even as I am going through one of the largest toy purges in my toy collecting career. I guess largest isn't the right word, how about hardest. Just last tonight I decided it was time to let go of some more things I never thought I would part with, I guess the catalyst was I was sorting through a tote of Star Trek toys and I looked over at the stack of totes I still need to go through and I thought, why am I storing some of this stuff. I mean I enjoy my collection, but some stuff I think I am just storing for no reason. I don't plan on opening some of it and I really don't plan on displaying it, so why am I holding on to it?

I couldn't answer that question really, so right then I decided it was time to make the cuts that hurt the most. I knew there were some loose toys and some packaged toys that I was holding onto out of some weird collector obligation, I gathered them up, reluctantly at first, and shot pictures of them and posted them at really good prices. I say really good because of my first round of stuff, eight auctions with low buy it now prices, five lots sold just as fast as I could post them. I was actually posting one and went back to revise it when I got two notifications that it sold to two different people. Don't ask me how that happens. I got it all sorted out though.

At first I was kind of disappointed, not that they sold or sold so fast, but that when I was ready to write this post I would only have three auctions going and undoubtably all my die hard toy collecting brothers would look at them and think "yeah, wow! Really letting some stuff go". My plan was to put lots up in groupings of ten or so, or for that matter as many as I could before I got tired of posting them. I plan on making some more cuts. If you remember this picture...

There were about 24 totes there and a couple boxes of toys. I can say that two of those totes is miscellaneous items that are not toys, so subtract those and that leaves lets say 22 totes. Probably most of my fellow collectors out there could easily double this number, but I used to work at UPS in college so I can pack a tote. That picture was taken around 2007, so the number of totes have fluctuated over time, emptying a few, refilling a few. This year I started a few little purges, maybe loosing a couple of totes here and there bringing the number down to around 19 totes, but recently I really doubled my efforts to clean house. My recent efforts have emptied 7 totes off that number. So I am sitting at 12 totes now, plus you have to take into account those little shelving units I am sorting into, those are probably where my first few totes of things went, which I am going to say have been a life saver sorting things to sell. It's so easy to pull a drawer and get a quick view of what i want to keep and what i want to thin out.

I still have a long way to go, I want to get that number of totes down to maybe 6 or eight, almost half of what I have now. Also I want to get the little shelf units to a more manageable point to store my keepers. So why all of a sudden this great purge? The purge to end all purges? A few reasons.

My Focus and thoughts on collecting have changed.

1) While there are a few Items I think I will always keep in their original packages, for the most part I am opening up things that I don't have already opened and enjoying them.

2) Loose items I have that are in great condition and can find another home I am letting go, as with some of the packed stuff that I can tell myself to let go.

3) The reason I say I am still a collector, I am planing on picking up a few great pieces for my collection, and also a few select pieces for my focuses; Batman, Stormtroopers, Classic Trek (Spock!), Vintage Star Wars, and a couple others I don't want to reveal at this time.

What does all this mean? Hopefully a more streamlined collection, better judgement on future purchases (which I doubt), and maybe help fill some holes in other peoples collections. So as long as this little Jawa is hanging around on the blog...

Click HERE for the Utini!

I will be in a continuous house cleaning frame of mind. Rest assured I have a few things coming in the mail I can't wait to get my hands on and shoot pictures of.

FINALLY!!!

I had pretty much given up on this one and the kicker, I have pretty much given all my other Transformers away, now I have one!



Also as a stroke of luck I spied these and snagged them both. Toy budget 0, Charles 3.

Hey it's a Birthday!

So I was mistaken my second post for the week will not be toy related. It's my little Basset Hound Squee's Birthday today. Catching up to our larger Basset, Squee is turning seven today. We are the type of people that will bake them a little plain cake and give them a slice (no worries it will not have any chocolate in it) and we do wrap them presents, because the Bassets love to rip open presents. Christmas time is pretty hectic around here we have to keep the presents put up until the big day or they would both unwrap them all... found that out the hard way one year.

This year they are getting matching collars. I say they because the Birthday girl (all our puppies are ladies) will get a present as well as all their "sisters", that way they are all covered, no favorites.

Here's a picture of Squee the morning before her big day. She must be day dreaming of travel and exotic foods. She could be watching the squirrels playing in the front yard too.



Oh, she caught me!



Not to leave you hanging on the toy front. My recent purge unearthed these two gems. I actually have a small collection of carded Batman the Animated Series figures and I also have a small collection of loose Batman the Animated Series figures. I knew I had each of these carded and I had actually been on the prowl on eBay for some cheap loose versions. Well as I was going through some totes for that care package the other day I turned up an extra carded set. My only guess is I must have acquired them in a lot and did not think I had them carded at the time so they got stored away. It was like a little good toy karma. I now have them setting on the shelves watching over the sort and keeping an eye out for more finds.



Actually sort of embarrassed that I didn't know I had these, I usually am pretty good at keeping track of this sort of thing. Oh well two more for me to detail on the ole' Batman the Animated Toy blog. Enjoy your day.

Sunday Afternoon Toy Purge

Okay, so first, no I haven't lost my toy collecting mind. I did though promise some nephews we saw at a wedding a few weekends back that I would send them some Batman stuff. I needed to weed out some of my extra things and thought this would be a great opportunity... then things started to go a little crazy and I decided to fill the box with a sampling of some other things that they might enjoy.

Before you all look at the pictures and pass out, no I am not getting out of collecting toys, this is just keeping with the whole need to get more focused. I still plan on keeping an ongoing open Batman collection, I kept a few of my favorite things from my packaged collection... just a lot less now. I still have my Stormtroopers starting to take over a second shelf thanks to Reis ; ) Plus I still have a ton of other items in the loose collection. This is just a continuation of a process I started a year or more back.

I succeeded in filling the box in the background to the brim and saving on using any packing material!

I wanted to make sure they had a few Batman characters to open, plus I had some extra Aquaman for each of the boys and of course some Trek plush (heh, gotta try) and I think that may be my last Cantina Musician.

One of my favorite Batman figures. I had an open one so I sent this guy to a new home, plus a few other loose heroes.

The boys are very into the "old" Batman the Animated Series cartoons. Since I have the series on DVD I had these individual episode DVDs kicking around and packed those in as well, plus a few of the older Toy Biz Marvel guys, why not.

Last is a bout 30 plus loose GI Joes and Cobra with a few more Heroes thrown in for good measure. I bagged them to keep the accessories together.

Man if that does not make their day (by the way three boys all at the right age for this stuff) I do not know what will. Perhaps I may have sparked an interest in some other heroes say Aquaman, Spider-Man, some Trek possibly?

Next post maybe I will post about some stuff I found and kept, ha ha, stay tuned.

Amassing the Fleet

So, I haven't been in too big of a toy buying mood lately, not sure why. There is a lot of cool stuff out there, just not feeling it right now. Anyway I decided to go through some of my loose totes to organize some more. I have been attacking them every once in a while when I can squeeze it into the schedule. The next tote up is what I refer to as the old Star Wars tote. This tote is mainly POTF2 (Power of the Force 2) action figures and the occasional oddity or two.

click to enlarge

I picked up a new tower of little drawers and set about sorting and figuring what's a keeper and what needs to go, side note this whole tote is a keeper, ha ha... anyway I sort of sorted them in little piles of Droids, Jedi, Scum and Villainy and a pile of Rebels. Then talking with a buddy of mine it made more sense to sort them by franchise (New Hope, Empire, Clone Wars, etc.) though that hasn't happened yet. As I unpack stuff I I tend to have little flash backs and start messing around, getting side tracked is easy with this tote of stuff. I noticed several little, heavy bundles at the bottom all wrapped in tissue paper, I unwrapped one and rediscovered a little Galloob TIE Fighter. A few more unwrapped bundles and I had my little collection of 90's era Die cast.

For the most part they are all Galloob, the exception being the Blockade Runner, which I think when Hasbro took over making these was it's first appearance, say around 2006. You may or may not know this, but Galloob, the Micro Machines Company, was bought by Hasbro and rolled under it's banner of toys. The Hasbro Titanium line was born from these Die Cast Micro Machines. I was always saddened that the smaller, almost rubbery, plastic Star Wars Micro Machines didn't make the cut. That was such a great line in itself.

So borrowing a cue from Collin over at Super Duper Toy Box, I labeled an image to help you sort what's what.

click to enlarge

A. Imperial Star Destroyer - One of my favorite all time Sci-Fi Starships.

B. Y-Wing -Can't have an X-wing without a Y-Wing. "Stay on Target!"

C. You know this one, it made the Kessel Run in les than twelve parsecs.

D. The Rebel Blockade Runner (Obviously these are way out of scale)

E. "Red Five Standing By", Luke's X-Wing, not big enough to be a threat to the Death Star... right?

F. The TIE Fighter that spurred this post.

G. Boba Fett's Slave I

H. A Jawa Sandcrawler, though this seems a little squatty, this is a fun one.

I. Luke's Landspeeder, another fun one. I am not sure if it's intentional or not,
but the wheels are off slightly on the axles and it
makes a cool,subtle wobble when rolled, like it's floating.

J. This is a all plastic version of Slave I, part of the X-Rays line,
showing the detail inside the ships. They came in two packs, this
may have come with Darth Vader's TIE Fighter, which I gave away
to my son or one of his friends long ago.

These were a great little find in the bottom of that tote and I found a few other things in there that may be of interest to Toy and Star Wars fans alike, you'll have to stay tuned for those.

Hey Ladies Reminder!

Today's the deadline to get your picture in for the "Hey Ladies" post on Friday!

Let's see this is 118...

Find out more about him at Batman the Animated Toys!

Honestly I am not doing this on purpose...

... I know , I know enough Batman! I can't stop!



Believe it or not I have passed on this Batman figure time and time again, I just wasn't sure if I was into the whole Imaginext thing. I picked up a Joker last year it was pretty cool, then for the Battle Royal with Reis I picked up another, the gray and black Batman... you can't have a Joker without a Batman. Then a few weeks back I found a Hawkman and Flash two pack, that peeked my interest more and now I guess I am going to try and get a few more.

I was actually looking at the Green Lantern with the Jet then I found out if I had waited on that earlier two pack I could have had three birds with one stone, oh well. Also kicking myself for not grabbing the Penguin, Riddler and Two Face from the Target Easter section... doh! Oh well don't they do one of these for the fourth of July or something?

So all that said I give you Batman 117. I may need to start another shelf, but my Stormtroopers don't want to give ground. Okay I will stop now... well, until number 118 comes in the mail from a eBay purchase, in my defense I was after an accessory and another figure that came with the Batman so there.

Da Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Batman! BATMAN!

No sooner than I leave a comment on one of Super Duper Toy Box's post do I pick up a Justice League Unlimited three pack... okay for the record I am not collecting these like I used too, but this set has a few things going for it and I had to get it, but the price, Ugh don't get me started... Mattel you bastards! I can't quit you!

First, up it's a new Batman I do not have, or a re paint I do not have.
Second, it's a freaking Batman The Animated Series Set! No Brainer.
Third, Who doesn't love a repainted Joker?
Fourth, holy freaking cow, it's the Gray Ghost, I would have never thought I would see this set ever.

Look how Happy Batman is, it's like when Bubbashelby picks up one of his all plastic dollies at a swap meet! I kid, I kid Bubba.



Oh Batman you will be number.... let's see, oh yeah 116! Seems like it was just yesterday I was thinking I would not get any higher than say 115...



Why is Batman so Happy? Oh, it's the Gray Ghost his childhood hero, punching Joker right in the kisser! Yea Bats, yea Gray Ghost! Boo Joker.



Oh what the hell, for old times sake... Viva JLU Club!

Stuff in the Mail! Big Thanks!

I have been remiss in my posting duties lately so today, like on Reis's blog, I am finally giving a few shout outs. First up Jboypacman has been doing some spring cleaning of sorts and has been making the USPS work for their money sending all sorts of goodies around the blogesphere. I have to say when he emailed me to let me know something was on it's way I was not expecting all the goodies he was intending to send my way, I am actually floored. I have to say, and forgive me if this gets a little mushy, but I have really enjoyed Jboy's efforts in collecting and being in on his little blog from the early days, it's like watching a little video game loving bird learn to fly... sniff, sniff. That goes for all the "newbies" out there... what a horrible term, how about "eager new collectors" ? I think they bring a fresh perspective in the often jaded world of collecting.



Big thanks Jboy! He let me know if there were anything I have extras of I could pay it forward to my fellow collectors, what a guy! There are a couple things I have duplicates of now, but I have to say he really knows his bloggers because a majority of the haul here is something I do not have in my collection. Oh and I had to get a chuckle because he sent me four, count them Reis FOUR new Batmans, that I didn't have in my collection... I think I will call them number 112, number 113, number 114 and number 115.



Next LEon over at open the toy surprised me with this awesome, minty fresh Captain Kirk from EMCE toys. I think this is just the greatest because he thought enough to send the good captain my way and who doesn't love getting packages from around the world! Thanks again LEon, you are the best.



Now I am a little embarrassed here because my dedication to this line of Figures runs a little deep, and I am going to say this upfront, it is an action figure, not a doll any effort by the "plastic only heads" is futile, because in truth any little toy that is a representation of the human, monster or alien (etc, etc.) form is considered a doll, it was the marketers of the 50's and 60's that coined the "action figure" name to sell "dolls" to boys and their parents. So trying to re-write history so you can sleep at night for buying little plastic men isn't going to work Bubba, call it a dolly all you want, you dolly lover!

Okay that said my embarrassment lies in the fact that including this one I now have four versions of this Kirk; I have an original open Mego (we all know you have to have at least one of the holy trilogy if not all three in Mego form), I have an open EMCE toys version (just like this one, but out of the package) as well as a packaged version... and now this one. So I talked it over with LEon and we agreed that a little contest or give away is in order, or I could slap a Harley Quinn outfit on it and send it to Bubba ; )

Anyway we'll work it out and make an announcement so study up on your Star Trek or even Shatner history... oh and when I received this package I could not help but think of this appearance(s) of our great captain.



Enjoy and Thanks again guys!

Candid Toy Pic - 04.12.2011

Finally! I found one that wasn't too bad (paint has been terrible on these) in the Target Easter section, Batman number 111, the Funko POP Heroes Batman... Awwwwwh, who's a lil' Batman... you are, you're a lil' Batman!

Sorting it all out

I debated posting these, I shot some really crappy phone pictures so I could show a friend what my latest action figure project is, then I thought might as well, you will get the idea of what I am trying to do here.



Here's an overview so far. I have about 6 to 8 totes packed with loose toys, they take up quite a bit of space in a spare closet, along with some totes of stuff I plan on opening and stuff I plan to keep packaged. Anyway, it is a pain to dig out a tote, especially if it is on the bottom of a stack of four and then get it situated so I have room to dig through it to find the figure I want to snap a picture of. I would love to have the room to display my entire collection at arms reach, but that is just not possible, so I end up rotating stuff out (not as often as I would like).

I broke down and passed on a Lego set I had been wanting and purchased a few of these pretty standard drawer units. I started with two and then two more... wait what? You say you only see two in the photos, oh that being pretty modular I have taken the first two apart, re arranged the order of the drawer units and snapped them all back together, I know nothing special, but it does give you a pretty decent height for the whole unit. So, these started out as five drawer units, with four shallow drawers and on larger drawer at the bottom. They make these things in all sorts of configurations and sizes, I found these to be the best for what I want to do. My goal is to maybe have 4 to 6 of these towers, I am really hoping for only 4, I think at some point I need to grow up a little and let some toys go... did I just say that?



Here's a peek into one of the drawers of the unit I am calling the DC Tower, okay I will admit at the bottom I might throw a few of my Marvels in there, it's a work in progress. For the most part this is all my DC figures except for any Batman figures. Batman may need his own set of storage drawers. I have decided on some figures, ones with tiny accessories I need to bag them. Instead of dropping a ton of money on action figure baggies I went with the local store brand sandwich bags. To me they are pretty much the same, maybe a little lighter mill. I also decided it might be wise to use a hole punch and make a little vent hole in the back, small enough to keep accessories from falling out, large enough to vent. My thinking here is to try and keep the figures and their accessories together and hopefully keep some of the plastics from cooking in their own juices. This may or may not work.

The shallow drawers will have very limited stacking and the larger drawers will have the most, but still far less digging than say a tote and hopefully in the case of the JLU figures that seem so easily damaged by storing together they will not be under the weight of fifty or more figures stacked on top of each other.



Finally, organization! I figured why not make it a little easier to find the toys I am looking for. This is the part of the project that is taking the time. I borrowed my wife's label maker and got to labeling drawers. I tried to keep the line name and the manufacturer all in the titles, but as you can see with the open drawer picture I do have drawers that contain mixes. I tried to label these with a few different descriptions or labels. I also found that I have more multiples on certain figures and figures I no longer really want from doing this, so I will be compiling them to send to friends, blogger buddies and post a few on eBay. Remember I am trying to cull the collection to a more focused collection. So with the DC Tower near completion, the empty one should be large enough to house my GI Joe 25th Anniversary figures plus Indiana Jones and maybe a few of the minor lines I want to keep. I think Star Wars may fill two of these by itself. Plus I do not know how I want to organize the loose Star Wars collection. Decisions, decisions...

Well, I know it's not the latest greatest toy or a crazy shot with a vintage Chewbacca, but it's what I have been up to lately. I will show more of this project as well as the others I always seem to have going as I get further along.

They make them in Orange flavor now!

While I was out with my wife this past weekend we stopped by the local Wally World, it's close and has just set out all their plants, so while she was looking over the nursery I went to the toy aisles. I picked up a Clone Wars figure I had been meaning to get (Not everyone's cup of tea) and passed down the die cast aisle where I was hit with this amazing little guy.

I have said it time and time again, if there is a Porsche 914 on the shelves and it's a different color from what I already have it will follow me home. That's just what this one did. I took a lot of flack on the ride home for buying another one of these cars, but I did point out it had three very important things going for it.

1) It was a Porsche 914
2) It was orange... a no brainer in my book.
3) It was inexpensive!



Some things I noticed on this version is it still has the silver interior, fairly accurate I might ad (not the silver, but the details), it also had a new deco, the "Porsche" decals above the rocker panels. Plus, I don't know if this was the case with all of them because I have only seen the one, but the signal lights are all missing their paint deco, front and back. I figured if it was like that on all of the orange models because of the new deco on the sides, maybe cutting into cost. I will have to check if I see another one.



Even with the signal deco missing I think this is a great little find and I for one am glad they are getting some mileage out of this car. I would welcome some more colors... hint we need a white one, a black one and a silver one : )

Hang In There!

I guess this would have been a better title if I had actually hung Spidey upside down or something, but I figured you the reader would see the connection. What a crazy weekend I totally feel unorganized starting this week, I hopefully will have something new for you this week. I picked up a few little toys this past weekend and have even started a loose collection organization project I might float by you to see what you think, also to ask how you store your loose figures.

So stay tuned true believer... Oh and this is a Famous Covers Spider-Man form series one if you were wondering, he surfaced from a tote I was cleaning out and has been hanging around on the computer desk. Right now he looks disappointed that he hasn't been featured on the blog and that I have slacked in my Marvel based posts. Jeez, I can't make anyone happy.

A Straggler

"Hide all the green women, Captain James T. Kirk has arrived! Hello? Anybody here? Where did everyone go? I swear the invite said wear green and be here on Monday...

"Nice Suit..."

"...does it come in extra, extra, extra large?"



Come on guys leave him alone and lets get the rest of these green toys packed back up... I can't leave you two alone for a minute.

My Original Turtles

These guys were kind of hidden in Friday's photo and I thought they needed a little spotlight of their own. They are some of the very first toys I collected.